Eternal Tides
by omgninjaspazz
Summary: Adri and Keo are abruptly thrown into a life neither thought possible-the life of a demigod. Shortly after they are introduced to this life, their already upsidedown world is flipped in another direction, and they need to  save it.  Ignoring 2nd Prophecy.
1. Unfamiliar Grounds

**Chapter 1. Unfamiliar Grounds**

I leaned my head on Keo's **(a/n: pronounced Kay-oh) **shoulder, not in an intimate way or anything, just like siblings. I laughed inwardly at the thought. You see, we _had_ been like siblings. Lately, things had gotten awkward between us. Not like we were drifting apart, but like…you know.

Sometime in the past year or so, Keo began to look good. I mean, like really, really good. Sometimes I even caught myself wondering about the hundreds of couples I see each day, except, replacing those faces with two other very, very familiar ones. These thoughts would always result in me giving myself a mental scolding and a futile attempt to get my mind off of that subject—it was plain impossible. I was pretty sure he didn't like me that way, after all, we had been friends forever, why would he want to ruin that…right?

Annoyed with my emotions and confusion, I sighed, closing my eyes for a moment—as if it would make things clearer. Wasn't it supposed to be easy for ADHD kids—like Keo and myself—to lose track of what they were thinking? Jeez. To my dismay, Keo had heard my sigh and flashed me a concerned look.

Carefully, he slid his arm around my shoulders, trying not to jostle my head. I wondered what had brought on this reaction until I focused my eyes on the movie screen for he first time in half an hour.

Blushing, I realized what the situation must have seemed like. The screen showed the aftermath of a huge battle. Headless corpses lay strewn on blood-soaked gravel, a few even gurgling for breath through slit throats. Unnaturally red blood poured from wounds. Every few seconds a spray of blood went up as the only soldier left standing beheaded any others that had been left alive.

Embarrassment pulsed through me, only deepening my blush, which was probably nearly invisible anyway due to my tanned skin. But it was surprising how well Keo could read my emotions. Hoping Keo wasn't watching me, I forced myself to stare at the screen, trying to cover my blush with a mask of indifference, to prove that the gore had no effect on me—it was something entirely different that had me flustered.

I absolutely _hated_ looking weak! Especially in front of Keo. It wasn't another of those 'awkward' moments, but more like sibling competition.

Shaking my head, I glanced back at Keo. To my surprise, he took that moment to glance at me too.

"Wanna ditch the movie?" he suggested, boredom evident in his features. At my glare he added quickly, "Only 'cuz it sucks, no other reason." He grinned sheepishly.

I sighed, frowning at the waste of a good fifteen bucks. I shrugged and got up, following him towards the theater's exit.

Outside, I was lost. Cars drove by, casting overly bright lights on everything and releasing noxious fumes. I wrinkled up my nose at the smell. The whole city smelled bad, like smoke, chemicals, and a hint of gas. It disgusted me.

Shaking my head, I clutched Keo's arm. If I somehow got separated from him— which wouldn't be that hard, as the streets were surprisingly crowded for it being somewhere around 9 at night—I would probably never find my way back home.

New York City was a nightmare.

In truth, I had never wanted to come here. I loved where I lived before. I still love it. Now, I would have to call my home this cold, city-afied, mainland nightmare my home.

Shivering, I pulled my _Rainbow Warriors_ hoodie closer to myself. Keo noticed this action and hung his warm—oddly so considering that all he had on was a t-shirt and jeans—arm around my shoulders. I was grateful for the action.

Before I noticed where we were going, Keo held open a door and warm air rushed out to meet me. I didn't even pause to read the sign above the door. It was warm, and that's all I cared about.

I took in my surroundings. The room was dimly lit, sofas and comfortable-looking chairs littering the floor. A faint smell of coffee beans drifted from a classily decorated counter. I immediately recognized the décor as that of a Starbucks.

Shooting a grateful look at Keo, who was still only inches away from me, the weirdo clinging to his arm, we briskly walked up to the counter to order. Well, it was more like I—pretty much—jogged and he got dragged behind me. But who cares about the details?

Five minutes later we were sitting at a small table with two chairs, sipping at hot chocolate.

We had barely talked, there was really not much need for words here. Or it could've been that I was so absorbed gulping down hot—_very_ hot—chocolate that any conversation would've been pointless.

Finally, the silence got too uncomfortable.

"I can't believe you can walk around in _that,_" I gestured to his t-shirt and slightly, okay very, ripped jeans, "and not freeze your butt off." I scrunched my face up to emphasize my point.

He chuckled. "Yeah, well, some of us can actually function in the cold," a sarcastic smile spread across his face.

I sighed and changed the subject, just after taking another sip of my chocolate. "Mmmmm… I just wish we could've stayed on Oahu. Why'd we even have to move anyway?" I meant for the question to be rhetorical. But, as usual, Keo ignored that fact and answered anyway.

"No reason that I know. The only reasoning I heard was 'because, Keola, we have to. Okay?'" we both laughed at the imitation of his mom.

After a few seconds, our laughter died down as the meaning of his words set in. Neither of us had been given any reason that we were moving here. One day our mothers just began packing up and told us that we were all going to the great 'NYC.'

Everyday, I wondered—and I'm sure Keo did too—why we had come here. Both our mothers (our fathers were both MIA. Although, neither my mom or Auntie Kalea, Keo's mom, ever complained. It was like both of their absences were totally understood, even though neither were dead. Weird much?) knew full well that neither Keo or I wanted to leave Hawaii. We both thought it was the best place in the world. On Oahu, we had everything a kid could ask for—friends, school, beaches, parks, _everything_. Every free day we had was spent together. Our parents usually referred to us as 'joined at the hip.' Sometimes, that was true.

I immediately saddened at the thought of Hawaii. I pictured the beaches, parks, trees, and mountains. I relived the first time I jumped off of Waimea Rock, I tasted shave ice from Waiola's, I heard the mynah birds chirping—annoying but familiar—outside my window in the morning.

Hundreds of thousands of other experiences rushed through my mind—all of my birthplace—Oahu. And, in all of these memories, was Keo. Standing beside me, helping me up after I tripped, reminding me that I needed to study, playing video games with me after we decided to forget the studying. Everywhere. No matter what memory I recalled, he was there. Of course, sleeping, getting ready in the morning, going to bed and all that didn't count. But any other time— walking to school, during classes, lunch, after school, weekends, summer, breaks—he was there. I was amazed at the vast majority of my life was spent with him.

I began to imagine, as I stared out into the bustling unfamiliar streets of New York, what would I have done if Keo wasn't here with me? If his mom had not decided to move here with mine? If I had left without him?

The truth about that was, I couldn't possibly imagine my life without him. He was my best friend, many people mistook him for my brother. Heck, sometimes _I_ mistook him for my brother. Although, lately, I had begun to think of him as something very different from a sibling…

Shaking my head, as if it would clear my mind of trivial thoughts and memories, I turned back towards the table, wishing I could forget where I was.

For the first time of the night, I looked up at Keo. Like, seriously looked, with decent lighting anyway—the theater didn't count. He couldn't help the slight smile that continuously tugged up the corners of his lips. I vaguely wondered what he was thinking before I refocused on his face. His skin was tan—bronzed would be a better adjective. It was the kind of tan that a lot of haoles (mainlanders, basically white people in general) wanted, but could never quite achieve. And I knew my skin was nearly the same shade as his was. His hair was the next thing I noticed, slightly wavy, just barely. It had enough curl in it to complete his haircut, something that I could only explain as a (messy)skater boy cut. Keo almost never bothered to do much to his hair other than brush it out of his face. His hair was medium in length, it was enough that it fell into his face, occasionally getting in his eyes. Even so, he refused to cut it, which I was thankful for. The look suited him.

My eyes drifted downward, taking in all his features at once. It was easy to tell that he was part Asian, duh with his last name being Oshiro, due to how his eyes got all squinty when he smiled. I had never really tried to classify what ethnicities he was, all I ever cared to know was that he was hapa, and so was I.

I laughed inwardly. Hapa. We were mutts, part White, Asian, Hawaiian, and whatever else made it into out genetics.

After a few moments, I convinced myself to look at his eyes. Beautiful was the word I had always used to describe them, from the day I learned that word on. His whole face was that of a local to Hawaii. Most of us locals had dark brown, almost black, eyes. He was one of the exceptions. His eyes were a startling electric blue, contrasting with his bronze skin and dark hair in a way that I thought would be impossible. Somehow his features were arranged so that no matter what he wore, his eyes always stood out, always looked amazing. Exaggerating his eye color even more were his eyelashes, long, dark, and curved, a perfect frame for the perfect eyes.

I wondered how long I had been staring at his eyes. Mostly because, when I finally began paying attention to the real world, not my little daydreams and explanations of how gorgeous Keo was, I noticed that the object of all my errant thoughts was staring at me. Oops?

As if reading my mind, Keo spoke, "Discreet much?" he fought back a smile. "I know I'm just so handsome to you, but you could at least _try_ to be sneaky with your ogling." Sarcasm filled his voice, but the comment still earned him a nice kick in the shin from under the table. "Ouch…" he mumbled, "No need to hurt the model."

"Model?" I scoffed, "I didn't know that's where you had your sights set. Personally I think you could've gone with 'super model.'" My eyes widened. I realized what I had said a moment too late, I had never been one to think before I talked. I guess that's what I got for contemplating how good Keo was look-wise then joking about the same subject. Something was bound to be blurted out.

I groaned, making a mock act of slouching in my chair with my arm over my face as if I had been defeated. To my surprise, no sound came from Keo. No victorious laugh or 'try again next time, Adri' escaped his lips. This concerned me.

Quickly removing my arm and opening my eyes, I found his face. Even more surprising then the lack of victory cry was his expression. He had suddenly gotten serious, and looked like he was contemplating, thoughts about to explode from him—judging from the emotion swirling in his beautiful—there that adjective was again—eyes.

I was about to say something, worried as I had rarely seen him so serious. The only time he was ever serious was when something was wrong.

Though, before I could utter a word, he blurted out, "Can we go outside?"

Going outside was the last thing I wanted to do, due to the cold, smelly air. But I was in concerned friend mode, and did as he asked.

About a minute later, we stood in the center of some deserted alley. I would have been scared, as only one flickering lamp lit the place, even though New Yorkers filed past each end of the narrow passage, as if it or we—two teenagers alone at night in a dark alley—didn't exist.

Steam erupted from a vent about 15 feet ahead of Keo and I, causing me to jump, but Keo remained perfectly still, back facing to me.

"Keo…" I began tentatively, scared of the reasoning he had for bringing me into such a private, as private as you could get in this city anyway (not counting our apartments), place. "Are you—"

He cut me off, "Adri, can I ask you something?" the words came out rushed, as if he had a hard time saying them.

"Yeah, sure…" I replied, even though I was about scared to death of what he was about to say. I had no idea what it would be, of course, but I had an odd feeling that something was about to change, forever. That scared me.

"Look…Adri…uh…" he paused for a long moment, trying to put words together, my fear increased. Finally, he started talking again, the words coming out so fast I couldn't understand them. It was something like "Adriwillyougtwitme" I stared at him, confused. He obviously understood that I had no idea what he just said, so he took a deep breath and repeated it, slower. "Adri," he said, staring me straight in the eyes. I didn't know whether to be scared or reassured, "will you…" he took another breath, "go out with me?"

I was dumbstruck. _That_ was what he was so serious about? _That_ was why he had me worrying that he had some incurable disease about? For Christ's sake! His earlier expression had me thinking that he single-handedly murdered half the people in the country or something, but it was all just nerves over _asking me out_?

Before I knew what I was doing, I stepped forward and hugged him, burying my face into his shoulder. I sighed, the exhalation full of pure relief.

Normally, I would have made some witty comment in this situation. Maybe something like 'geez, I thought you were going to tell me you were gonna kill my mom or something. You need to learn to relax' or something like that, but all I could bring myself to say was, "Of course ya big idiot. I've been waiting for you to ask me that forever!"

His face immediately brightened, eyes shining with what I thought, just maybe, might've been tears. He opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off.

A huge crash resounded through the alleyway, causing both of us to jump and turn towards the sound.

Fifteen feet in front of Keo and me was the biggest freaking dog I'd ever seen.

**A/N: Okay! so there was my first chapter, please review and tell me if its decent, thanks =) **


	2. Doggie!

**A/N: Here's chapter 2! Enjoy =)**

**Chapter 2. Doggie! **

I felt my jaw drop… literally, it kind of hurt. Involuntarily, I glanced to the side, wondering if Keo was seeing the same thing I was. Maybe I was delusional? Oh boy did I hope I was.

I felt my breath leave in a whoosh of air, but only heard the sound of my heart pounding furiously. The ADHD side of me wondered if there were some kinds of hammers inside of me, futilely trying to pound their way out of my body. Odd.

Apparently, my breathing wasn't as silent as I'd hoped. In a split second, the dog whipped around, midnight black fur blending with the dark alleyway. Its body was a shadow come to life, but its eyes… Its glowing eyes were a furious, burning, red.

The motion created enough of a breeze for my nose to finally register that it needed to get to work and send signals up to my brain. I wished it hadn't. The monster smelled of… death. The contents of my stomach began to churn uncomfortably.

The dog-monster sharpened its dark gaze on Keo and me. A cold sweat broke out on the back of my neck. Somehow I knew that this wasn't a dog that was going to play nice, no matter what we did.

All of this happened in a few short seconds.

It took a step closer—it was as if the world was in slow motion.

Different scenarios flashed through my mind—_Run? Fight? …Pat it on the head and tell it to run home?_ Absently, I glanced at the exits from the alleyway, one behind us and one straight ahead. The monster bared its fangs… er… canines… they weren't really _fangs_. But, darn, those things looked sharp. An image of my dead, mutilated body flashed through my head, causing my heart to quicken its pace—something I thought impossible.

The monster/dog/bear/_thing_ took another step forward, claws becoming evident on its shadowed paws.

Running away sounded very, very nice. The only thing that held me in the alley was Keo. Would he figure out that it was time to run before the dog sprang? It wasn't that hard to figure that it would jump as soon as I moved.

Another step. The _thing_ was only about two and a half meters away now, a giant dumpster blocking it's path to us. For once, I was thankful for trash.

Afraid of making sudden movements, I gave Keo's hand a squeeze, pulling it slightly to the exit behind us. If we startled it, I knew with utmost certainty that it would lunge at us, bringing our death on swift…paws? There went my ADHD side again. I hadn't even noticed I had been holding his hand.

From what I could tell, he got the message. The expression of incomprehensible fear in his eyes melted off, leaving only the will to live and, if necessary, to fight in their icy blue depths.

Another step.

I got ready to turn, lowering myself slightly—coiling up my muscles. I was about to give Keo's hand another squeeze, telling him to forget anything else and flat out _run_, when some _idiot_ jumped in and ruined things.

"_Crap!_" I yelled as some curly-haired kid with an oversized DC hat stepped out of a broken down door just a few feet away from me. He was positioned perfectly between the giant dog and Keo and I. _Crap_, I repeated in my head, about to run, and wondering when the dog would spring. I was sure at least half a second had passed.

But before I could turn around, I noticed something. Mr. Curly-Hair was staring straight at the giant dog—not scared… more like…triumphant. He cast a glance at me and Keo—_maybe we've got a chance after all, _I thought, _Curly-Hair may be equipped to get rid of this thing._ Moments later, I was proved wrong. He pulled something out of his back pocket, facing the giant dog, who had—surprisingly—not moved the entire time, which was probably about 10 seconds. To my dismay, what he pulled out of his back pocket was _not_ a weapon. He pulled out something that resembled a bamboo flute out, and proceeded to raise it to his mouth, or I assumed as I couldn't see his face.

What _was_ that IDIOT doing? I wanted to scream every profanity I knew at him, but that wouldn't get us far, now would it?

Before I could finish contemplating if it would be worth it to grab Curly-Haired-Idiot and run, I was surprised, yet again.

By this point, he was playing an unfamiliar melody on the flute, and to my surprise, and elation, _stuff_ began moving. It was as if his song caused all the little bits of mold and plant remains in the garbage cans to _grow_. The plants—vines, mold, and something that looked like…was that marijuana?—began wrapping around the now angry dog. It snapped at all the green stuff that had begun to tie its paws to the ground, its razor sharp teeth cutting through plant fibers like they weren't even tangible.

My hope vanished. What had I been thinking? It was a giant dog with _teeth_ and _claws _versus some kid and a bunch of fast growing plants!

For the third time that night, I tugged slightly at Keo's hand and prepared to run, only to be stopped for, yes, the third time. This time, it wasn't because of ethics, or false hope. This time, I stopped because something was actually _working_. As the kid's playing increased in speed, so did the growth of the greenery. The giant dog couldn't keep up! His—I assumed most dogs were he's—teeth would snap off a section of plant, only for that section to grow back and then some, all in less than a second.

Half a minute later, the giant monster-dog was turned into a moving plant-sculpture, none of his unnaturally black fur showing through the layer of green.

The flute's tune changed.

Where, before, the tune was a fast one of light, almost prancing-like, notes, it was now a deep sound. Low, long tones were combined into something that really reminded me of an action/suspense movie. Maybe Jaws? I wondered why the tune changed so abruptly.

My question was answered as, slowly, very slowly, the vines and other materials constricted, squishing the giant monster within. A minute later, the bear-sized bundle of green had been reduced to half its original size. I did _not_ want to know what something like that felt like.

A millisecond later, the bundle exploded. Well, sort of. It didn't _explode_ exactly… it was more like a whole vacuum cleaner's worth of dust suddenly erupted from the gaps between the plants.

At this, Mr. Curly-Hair-Not-So-Much-An-Idiot-Anymore was visibly relieved. He cut off the melody, back sagging as he let out a huge sigh. My apparently iron-grip on Keo's hand loosened.

_Oops, _I mouthed, looking at him apologetically. He responded by giving me a sheepish smile and focusing back on the Mr. Music in front of us. Neither of us moved a step closer to the curly haired kid, as if the ground around our little spot was covered in spikes.

Curly Hair turned toward us, a slightly sad look on his tan face. He quickly gave us a smile and advanced, avoiding all of the rubbish on the ground.

As he made his way over to us—limping, I wondered why—I took in his features. His eyes were a deep, dark brown. The color matched that of the guy who gave Keo and I a tour around our apartment building's, it was scary. I tried to remember his name, Gary? Gabe? I couldn't recall it, at the moment. But I could recall how both Keo's and my mothers trusted him fully; it led me to trust him too. I was sure Keo felt the same way.

By this time, Curly Hair was right in front of me and Keo. I felt Keo go suddenly tense, wondering if this stranger posed a threat.

"Hey," said Curly Hair. Such a normal word felt out of place after what had just happened. "Look, I know you guys want a full explanation of what just happened—"

"Wait!" I interrupted, surprising even myself, "You mean you know what that was? And _why_ it just popped out of NOWHERE?"

"Yes, I do," he replied, worriedly glancing around, "But now is not the time to explain. The less you know, for now, the better. And we have to get out of here. C'mon. We're going to your guys' place."

He began walking out of the alley, assuming we would follow.

"Wait," Keo said the same thing I had, thankfulness covering the hint of distrust in his voice. "One, thank you." He'd always been pretty kind to strangers. "Two, I'm sorry, but we can't exactly just show you where we live. For all we know you cold be a psycho—no offense. Not to mention the fact that you just killed that _thing_ and wont even explain what it was! That doesn't exactly lead me to trust you. And the fact that you showed up around the same time as that…that…monster."

"Look," said Curly Hair, looking like he wanted nothing more then for us to just trust him and get the heck out of there, "Gale sent me. You met him about a week ago," that was the name I was trying to remember! Gale. "He showed you around the apartment building. I even know your guys' parents," he looked at Keo, "your name is Keola Oshiro, and your mom's name is Kalea **(a/n: pronounced Kuh-lay-ah)** Oshiro. You've never met your dad." He turned to me, nothing about his expression hinted at any of what he said being a lie. "You are Adri McAllister. Your mom is Lisa McAllister. You also never met your father. You have an adopted brother named Tye." Keo and I both stiffened at that last word. _Tye_. Curly Hair was right. Tye was my brother. Sadly.

Keo gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. Even the mention of Tye brought back some really horrible memories. I shuddered.

"Please," Keo said curtly, "Don't mention that name around us."

"Who?" Curly Hair said, "Tye?"

"Yes!" There was barely any space between Curly hair's question and Keo's answer. "That one…" He paused, flashing me an apologetic glance.

"So now that you're either a stalker or trustworthy," Keo said just as I said, "Wait! You didn't even tell us your name!" We both laughed.

"Well…" Curly Hair said, "One: I'm not a stalker. Two: My name's Thorne. And now that we've introduced ourselves, and hung around you way longer than we should have, can we _please_ go to your homes? _Bla-ha-ha!_" I had no idea what the heck the 'bla-ha-ha' thing was, but I couldn't help thinking it sounded like a… goat. He began walking closer to us, urging us to turn around and move. Although, when he walked, I noticed something off. He walked with a… limp of sorts. But it wasn't really a limp… I didn't know. All I was sure of was that he did walk pretty darn funny.

Keo glanced back at me, his eyes saying, _Should we trust him_? I nodded and we set off, with Curly Hair hovering just behind us, glancing around like something would jump out of the ground to kill us. Well, considering the consequences of our meeting, something jumping out of the ground to kill us was pretty likely. My pace quickened.

"Here's home!" Keo and I both said, standing in the hallway in between two doors—each of our apartments.

"So," Thorne said, some of the fear draining out of his eyes, "Whose place we going to first? Neither of you are allowed more then 20 feet away from me. Got that?"

We both nodded, trusting Thorne completely by this point. He had…er… _explained_ some things to us on the way to the apartment building. Let's just say that he had some very… personal information that led us to believe he really did know our mothers.

"You know," I pointed out, "Both apartments are connected inside. So, it really doesn't matter which way we go." I shrugged.

Keo automatically opened the door that led directly to his apartment—we both spent most of our time there, so did my mom. Heck, sometimes I even _slept_ in the Oshiro's apartment instead of my own. It was mostly to avoid my adopted brother, but sometimes doing that was just impossible. Like today.

**A/N: okay, hope you liked that chapter =) reviews are appreciated (good or bad)**


	3. Brother'

**A/N: here's chapter 3, enjoy!**

**Chapter 3. 'Brother…'**

"Hey ya little," [place synonym for female dog here.] I looked up, disgusted. His words were slurred to the point that they were barely interpretable. A lazy sneer was plastered on his face as he staggered over.

From feet away I could smell the alcohol on him. He steadied himself on a pile of boxes that belonged to Keo, spilling some of his half-emptied bottle of beer on them. I saw Keo's jaw tighten out of the corner of my eye. I gingerly touched his arm, just above his wrist. That was our signal for 'stop.'

My 'brother' mock-scrutinized Keo.

"I see you brought the little cockroach," he slurred, glaring at Keo and very purposefully knocking the stack of boxes down. "Oops," he mouthed with an overly triumphant grin. I noticed Aunty Oshiro—Keo's mom—cringe from the corner of the room. I gave her an apologetic look. Instances like this were common, sadly.

"What do want, Tye? If your trying to make my life hell, as usual, then why don't you just get your intoxicated and probably high self back to wherever you came from and go drink a few more beers," I snorted as I motioned to the green bottle in his hand. "Hopefully you'll pass out somewhere and leave us all in peace for a night, you idiot." As soon as I said it I knew I'd gone a tad, just a tad, overboard. Tye's pakalolo (marijuana) and booze induced smile faded into an angry scowl.

"What did you just say?" he growled, making an effort to stand up straight. I will admit, he was pretty intimidating when he wasn't slumped over and swaying back and forth. Maybe he wasn't as drunk as I thought he was.

My best estimate of his height would be at least six feet tall, maybe an inch or two more. Either way, he was nearly a good foot taller then me. I gulped.

Being my stupid—at times anyway—self, I attempted to act tough.

"I said _go_. I'm sure—" all I saw was a flash of brown before my head snapped sideways, me falling to the ground in the process. Then I felt the pain.

Tears sprang to my eyes, not because of the pain, but because I was _pissed_. My hand automatically flew to my face as I worked my jaw, making sure it wasn't damaged.

Finally, I looked back up at Tye, ready to yell at him. He had just bitc—uh, slapped me after all! His hand was still elevated, why it was I did not know. I did notice his eyes, so brown they were nearly black. They were hazed over slightly, from both rage and the high that came along with alcohol and/or drugs.

The corner of his mouth pulled up slightly, as if grinning at the fact that he had brought me to the floor in one snap of his wrist. I was about to stand up and drag him out of the room, he had caused enough trouble, when yet another thing surprised me—Keo.

Keo stepped around me, I wondered when he had gotten so fast, moving closer to Tye. Then I realized it, he was close enough to throw a punch. _No!_ Maybe Tye wouldn't seriously injure me, I was a girl, hurting me would damage his 'rep,' but he would have no such restrictions with Keo.

I heard a fist connect with bone and flesh.

I stood, only moments after Keo's punch connected with Tye's face. Some small part of me took extreme satisfaction in seeing Tye get hit like that, but I knew better. This was trouble.

Glass and booze exploded, a piece slicing my calf, but I didn't worry about that at the moment.

Tye fell, hand lashing out to catch himself, and he did…on a pile of broken glass. He yelped an expletive as the shards embedded themselves in his fleshy palm, blood joined the puddle of booze spreading across the wooden floor.

His eyes refocused, away from his bloody hand, and on Keo. I jumped, planting my feet in between him and Keo, as if I could stop my brother, one of the best street fighters in our school.

My attempt was futile, Tye was like a bulldozer. He threw me aside, into the edge of Keo's dining table, as if I was a rag-doll. I gasped as my side came in contact with the hard wood, it was only slightly painful, but quite a shock. My head followed, making a loud bang—at least to me—as it hit the table. For a moment my vision went black, but it wasn't long enough for me to miss much of the now full-blown fight before me.

Keo was fast, but Tye had a _lot_ more experience fighting, and it was clearly evident. Tye threw his fist at Keo, his whole body rotating with an almost lazy look. I heard a very suspicious thud as his fist made contact with the side of Keo's face

I tried to move as I watched Keo fall to the ground, gasping and clutching the side of his face. His lip was split, and blood steadily dripped out of the wound. Although, his gaze was still determined.

Again, I willed my limbs to move, and this time they listened. Tentatively, I moved into a sitting position, yes I needed to hurry, but falling over again would do nothing for me.

Tye slowly moved towards Keo, exaggerating his presence.

_C'mon, c'mon,_ I thought to myself, carefully I stood up—bad idea. My head throbbed, almost causing me to double over and fall back to the ground. My vision got blurry for a moment, but I could still make out the shape of Tye standing haughtily over Keo…reaching down…grabbing Keo by the shirt, pinning him to the wall. My vision returned to normal.

Keo tried to struggle, get a punch in on Tye, but Tye's free arm pinned both of Keo's to the wall.

I tried to move, taking a step forward, the room began to spin around me. I braced myself against a pile of boxes, they were everywhere, lining a path through the already tiny apartment. My head throbbed again, I paused, squeezing eyes shut and putting my free hand to my temple. I was only about a yard and a half from Tye, who was occupying himself by repeatedly punching Keo in the stomach and face. Tears began to fall from my eyes. How could I be watching this and doing nothing! Keo needed my help and a stupid headache was stopping me!

I saw blood begin to spill from Keo's mouth, he was beyond the point of crying out when he got hit. Why did that idiot challenge Tye? He'd seen him fight at school before, he knew Tye was way better then him… I pushed aside such thoughts and focused on what I would do when I reached Tye. Try to pry him off Keo? Yeah, that would work. Not.

I ended up settling on kicking him hard enough that he'd be distracted. Yeah, good plan. I took another step, flinching at the pain that ripped through my skull with each movement. I began to notice the cut on my leg, it was a lot deeper then I thought.

Could this situation get any worse?

I looked around for anything that I could use as a weapon, hoping I could hit Tye hard enough for him to drop Keo. I noticed two things as I looked around. One, Aunty Oshiro—who I'd, truthfully, forgotten was in the room, she was so small, both short and delicate—was on the phone, speaking frantically to someone, I couldn't care less who it was. I only hoped it was the police. And, two, Thorne was gone. I knew I couldn't really trust him to help, but, once I remembered about him, I wished he had his little flute thing to go attack Tye. I guessed I had no help then.

Just as I pulled my foot back, ready to kick as hard as I could, head still feeling like something inside of it was exploding, the door burst open. Three faces snapped towards the sound, one of them nearly collapsing from the pain the motion caused. One person didn't look—Tye—he continued punching Keo in the face for the 10th time at least. If I was all tipsy from pain, I wondered how Keo felt. I was surprised that he hadn't already blacked out.

Finally, a positive emotion filled me—relief. I wouldn't have to distract Tye after all. My mother stood in the doorway, worry and rage filling her features. Why did seeing my _mother_, who was just as fragile looking as Aunty Oshiro, make me so relived? Because, she had the landlord with her. If Tye was tall, he was _huge_. He was about the same height as Tye, an inch or so taller, but he was _strong_. I had seen him stop fights between people on the street by pinning both of the participants. I did say Tye was a good fighter, at our school. Compared to the rest of NYC? Not so much.

The landlord—Greg—tackled Tye, effectively pulling him away from Keo as well as pinning him to the ground. Tye snarled, almost like an animal as he tried to struggle free with no success.

I fell to the ground, seeing no more reason to try to remain moving. I let my eyes close, falling into a dim abyss where I felt nothing. Much better then the real world, at that moment anyway.

I woke up to a new world. I was surrounded in white, white walls, white floors, and the bed I was in was covered in white sheets. Even the loose dress-like thing I wore was white. Ew, a dress. I moved, propping myself on my arm, wondering where I was. I couldn't hear anything. As I moved, something rustled, and I realized the gown I was in was paper. And my arm had a needle stuck in the skin opposite my elbow. Frantically, I looked around, glad that my head no longer hurt, but I felt drowsy… I attempted to shake the feeling as I took in my surroundings.

I let out a sigh of relief as I saw what was on my left. A bed identical to my own was there, rails on the edges, I wanted to laugh, realizing that Keo was in a bed with _rails_ on the sides. Then I remembered, so was I. Not to mention, the reason we were both here.

Keo's chest rose and fell, I could hear his deep breathing—he was asleep. A slight smile spread across my face. After figuring out how to pull the rail on my own bed down, I focused on the IV and clip type thing on my finger. They were annoying.

I began to hear what was going on outside. There were a lot of painful-sounding noises. I shuddered. By this point, I knew I was in a hospital, in a way that bothered me, but I knew Keo needed medical attention so it was okay. But being forced to sit in a bed, 10 feet away from him, unable to see the extent of the damage done was beginning to get on my nerves.

Forgetting all sense, I pulled the IV out of my arm. It hurt a bit, but I was sure it was nothing compared to whatever Keo felt when he was awake, so I ignored it. Blood beaded up on the wound left behind, I ignored that too. Next was that weird clip. I pulled that off without a second thought, this one didn't hurt.

I carefully placed my feet on the cool floor and stood, using the bed to brace myself. Maybe I felt fine sitting down, but standing up made the world spin, my head began to hurt again, not an explosion of pain, more like an everyday headache…most importantly, it was bearable.

On my bedside table was a glass of cold looking water. I downed the whole thing immediately, not caring whose it was or where it came from. I hadn't even realized how thirsty I was until that point. The water made me feel better, less dizzy and more in control.

Slowly, I moved forward until I reached Keo's bed. I sat in a comfy looking chair by the side of his head, placing my hand on his hair, it was smooth, as if someone had combed it. I knew it wasn't Keo—he never paid attention to his hair other than to brush it away from his electric blue eyes.

My eyes finally registered the bandages. His face was covered in them, as was his whole stomach. I immediately felt horrible. It was my fault that what had happened to him did. Tears began welling up in my eyes. Jeez! I had been getting so emotional lately.

Suddenly, the door at the opposite end of the room burst open, some guy in a long white coat appeared in the doorway, looking determined and worried. My and Keo's mothers followed him. They were all staring, dumbfounded, at the bed I had recently vacated.

"Adri!" my mother yelled, frantic.

"Uhm, yeah mom?" I replied as I stood up—no dizziness or headache this time, fine…I'll admit it, I downed Keo's water too—fighting back laughter.

The guy in white, a doctor I assumed, sprang forward, arms out as if to catch me. This time I couldn't help but burst into laughter. The look on the poor guy's face made the moment even more hilarious. He stared up at me, as if he was somewhere between waiting for me to fall and wondering why the heck I hadn't already collapsed. He remained frozen as my mom rushed towards me.

"Adri!" she exclaimed, smiling, "you're okay! How're you feeling, honey?"

"Other then pretty pissed off at Tye, perfectly fine," I scrunched up my nose then smiled to emphasize my point.

The doctor cut in, eyeing me around my mother, "'Perfectly fine.' You mean, no headache, dizziness, nausea… nothing?" his tone was that of disbelief.

I shook my head. "I had a headache earlier, but I drank some water and I'm fine!" I smiled again to prove my point. Keo and I were _away_ from Tye. Just that fact made me bubbly. The doctor's expression was shocked, I fought the urge to giggle again. "So," I said, putting on a straight face, "How's Keo? He's not seriously hurt is he?"

The doctor came back to life, medical training kicking in. "No, he'll be fine. He has two broken ribs," the doctor pointed to two places on Keo's left side. "Amazingly, his organs weren't damaged at all. But his face has some cuts, and some of them will scar…" the man eyed me, about to cringe, like he expected me to throw a tantrum.

I giggled again, sighing happily. "As long as he's alright… I got no problem with scars." I showed the man my elbows, covered in little white marks from my various outdoor escapades. I was feeling oddly child-like and happy. I was in a hospital and I was happy. Odd.

"The painkillers, hon," Aunty Oshiro said, reading my mind. "They make you a little crazy." She winked, for who knows what reason. But, that did explain my mood.

I sat back down in the chair, the doctor springing all over the opportunity. "Are you okay? Dizzy at all? Any pain?" he blurted the words out, expecting me to answer. I shook my head.

"Just shocked. Not a big fan of hospitals here."

"Well," he said, "you need to go back to your bed. Rest is what you need right now."

"I can rest sitting here just as well as other there," I nodded to the hospital cot, that looked a heck of a lot less comfortable when I looked at it from the side.

He looked at me for a moment, and then capitulated, rolling his grey eyes. For the first time, I really looked at his face. He had kind of long blond hair, lazily smoothed back out of his face. Stubble covered the bottom of his face. Surprisingly enough, it didn't make him look like a hermit. I chuckled inwardly. All of it kind of worked for him. His masculine features matched his height and build pretty well. Although, he was kind of an idiot in a way.

After another moment, he noticed the blood on my arm.

"Jeez!" he said, acting more like a family friend then a doctor, "you could at least not hurt yourself, make my job a little easier?" he mumbled as he turned around and pulled over something that looked like a coat rack with a bag of fluid on it—the IV. He pulled some other unidentifiable thing over as well, putting that weird clip back on my finger.

"This was the reason we ran in," he gave me a pointed look, "leave it be, 'kay? I can't be under the impression that you've died whenever you're annoyed by it." He paused, looking me up and down. "Are you hungry?" the moment he said the words my stomach growled. "Guess you don't really need the IV… considering you oh so delicately _ripped_ the thing out of your arm." He chuckled as he cleaned and bandaged my arm. I blushed, realized that _ripping the thing out of my arm_ was exactly what I'd done. Oops? "I'll tell a nurse to bring some lunch," he said as he left the room.

A few seconds after he left, I turned to my mom. "Who the _heck_ was that?" I asked.

"Old family friend?" she offered, shrugging. I contemplated, deciding to drop the subject as I faced Keo again. He would be fine. Keo would be fine. I let out a sigh of relief as I put my hand back on his hair.

The door burst open again, causing me to jump.

Thorne walked in, face tense.

"Thorne!" Aunty Oshiro and my mother said together. How _did_ they know him?

"What are you doing here?" my mother said.

Thorne looked straight at me, brown eyes serious.

"I need to break you out of here."

**A/N: if you're reading this I assume you read the chapter, I hope it was good. And I'm sorry for not getting them to camp Half Blood already, but there's so much other stuff I wanted to write! Now I'm babbling... sorry, again. Well, please review you're opinion. Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thanks =)**


	4. Jailbreak

**A/N: well, here's a birthday present to you! xD well, it's my birthday, so I thought I'd just hurry up and post this now =) it's a bit longer then usual chapters, but enjoy! (I hope)**

**Chapter 4. Jailbreak**

"You need to _what?_" I asked, my voice louder then I thought it would be. Keo stirred, causing me to forget about Thorne's absurd idea and focus back on Keo.

Keo yawned, flinching at the pulling of skin on his face and the movement of his ribs. His eyes fluttered open, blue on bronze, contrasting in the beautiful way that they always did. He looked at me and attempted a smile, flinching again as he split open the cut on his lip again.

"Idiot!" I mumbled as I buried my face in his uninjured shoulder, letting all my stress and fear from the night before out in one, deep, breath.

He looked at me, and then scanned over his own body, cringing as he saw all of the bandages.

"So what's the damage?" he asked me, unwilling to look back at his mangled self.

"Two broken ribs, sprained hand, and," I paused, frowning, "you closely resemble a mummy."

He chuckled, wincing in pain. I immediately felt horrible for causing him to laugh.

Apparently, he saw my apology in my face. "Not your fault," he said and rolled his eyes, the one part of him that seemed bandage free.

I was about to protest when Thorne interrupted. I had forgotten he was even in the room, again. Heck, I'd forgotten _anyone_ else was in the room.

"Uhm… guys, you did hear me right?" Keo gave him a confused look. "I need to break you out of here. Was there any part of that you didn't understand…?" He tapped his foot impatiently. The motion brought something else to my attention.

"You…" I began, looking back down to make sure, "have crutches. Why?" I felt kind of bad for changing the subject again, but 'breaking us out' of the hospital was really a bad idea, with Keo being a mummy and all. I hoped I could avoid the subject of our jailbreak for the time being, not to mention the fact it was stupid and unnecessary. We were in a _hospital_. What could happen to us in a _hospital_?

"My feet, in the shoes, like…" Thorne paused, shaking his head, curls bouncing beneath his Rasta hat. "You don't need to know that yet. C'mon. We gotta go." He looked around impatiently, as if there was some hidden danger.

"Uh, dude…" Keo said, "I think you've inhaled something. Why do we need to get out of here? Now?" He raised an eyebrow, questioning Thorne's reasoning for the same reason I did.

"Look—" he said, beginning to get annoyed as he continued to scan the room, but my mom cut him off.

"Listen to him, Adri. Keo. You guys need to get to Camp," she said the last few words facing Auntie Oshiro. So they were both in on it.

"Auntie," I said, my mom was a lost cause. I hoped that being Keo's mom would make her see that Keo was in no shape to be broken out of anywhere. Even carrying him would be hard. And I wasn't about to let him run, even if he said he could. "I don't understand."

She replied, sighing slightly. It was as though she knew what I was thinking—hoping. Defeat in her eyes, she said, "You guys need to go. Keo will be healed much faster there, and you guys can't risk staying here any longer. Sorry…"

I felt a tap on the back of my arm.

"Adri, 's okay. I'll be fine. A few broken bones wont stop me for long," Keo sat up, trying to prove his point. Halfway up to a sitting position, he gasped, eyes going wide. Before my mind could react, my body did. I caught him by his shoulders and lowered him down to the bed. "Ow…" he moaned.

I gave him the 'I told you so' look.

"Lunch!" a nurse said, propping the door to the room open with her foot as she pulled two trays of food into the room. "Enjoy," she smiled and put both trays on a table attached to Keo's bed. "If you need anything, press this," she motioned to a little red button on the side of the bed. Keo and I both nodded and she left the room.

Keo moved, like he was going to try and sit up again.

"Oh no you don't," I said. Before he could protest, I added more, "Not by yourself, again." I held out my arm in a silent offer of assistance. Keo nodded.

Slowly, Auntie Oshiro and I managed to bring Keo up into a sitting position. He was _heavy_. Although, all of the weight was bone and muscle… but still.

Keo let out a held breath, then smiled.

"Let's eat!" he said enthusiastically as Auntie pressed a button that brought the back of the bed up so Keo could lean on it.

Laughing, I moved the bedrail down and pulled the table so it was in front of Keo.

"Nice of you to give me so much food!" he joked, trying to lighten the atmosphere. He grabbed a fork and took a bite of what looked like mashed potatoes.

The look on his face was _hilarious_. His eyes went to squinty and elated, to bulging and shocked. His face scrunched up as he swallowed. After he did, he stuck his tongue out, making a show of wiping it off with a napkin.

"Ewwww," he groaned, pushing the tray away. "This is _not_ food."

All of us except Thorne laughed, he still had a scarily serious look on his face.

"Guys," he said, obviously meaning Keo and me, "Either eat, or listen to the plan. We need to get out of here." Something in his tone made us somber again.

For five minutes, we listened to what he had to say, nodding along, wondering why it was so important we get out of the city. We'd just moved here after all!

"Got it?" he asked us. Keo and I both nodded, giving each other wary glances. "Okay," Thorne said, handing me a set of clothes. Jeans and a tank-top with RipCurl written across it in velvety blue letters. I recognized it from my closet. Very nice. He also handed me a pair of my old running shoes.

"Uhm, Thorne?" I said as he handed Keo his clothes. "I'm going to freeze." I held up the tank-top, eyeing him disbelieving me.

"Oh, sorry." He handed me my Warriors hoodie.

"Thank you," I said, plucking it out of his hand, immediately heading to the bathroom to change. The sooner out of the paper gown I was wearing, the better.

I gave ample time before leaving the bathroom. Just to make sure my mom and Auntie had Keo fully changed. I didn't want to walk in when they were half finished.

Surely enough, when I returned, I found Keo lying in his bed, face beet red—or as red as it could be through his tanned skin. Someone had removed the IV from his arm, as well as the clip thing. He was wearing a white Quicksilver T-shirt under a heavy grey jacket that I didn't recognize. He also had running shoes.

Both mine and Keo's mothers were leaning against the wall next to his bed, pleased that they had managed to get him changed without causing him to die from the pain.

The door to the room opened, and I worried that we'd been found out, until I saw Thorne, crutches and all, pulling a wheelchair behind him.

"Wasn't sure if he could walk down yet," turning to Keo's mother he said, "I brought some Nectar. If we need to, he should be able to run later." I wasn't sure what 'Nectar' was, but it sounded helpful, so I shut up. Thorne took out a thermos from his pocket and handed it to Keo. "Now drink _all_ of that." He turned around and grabbed a bottle of water. "You drink that."

Slightly annoyed that Keo got something cool like 'Nectar' to drink, I opened the bottle. As I twisted off the plastic cap, I glanced at Keo, hoping to get a glimpse of this Nectar thing. Boy, was I surprised. Keo looked like he'd just seen a ghost as he looked at the thermos. After a moment, he quickly returned to slurping it down and finished it in record time.

"Whoa," he said as he handed the empty thermos to Thorne. "That was somewhere between amazing and the weirdest thing I've seen." He turned to me, "Yes, weirder then you." I chuckled, trying to forget my curiousity about the 'amazingly weird' drink as I downed my bottle of water. It made me feel better immediately. I stopped inwardly complaining about not getting a cool new drink, if water made me feel this good, I didn't care.

Keo looked like the Nectar had made him feel like he had wings, too. I laughed, RedBull.

Thorne peeked out the door, the turned back around, closing it. "Okay, Ms. Oshiro. Can you please stay here and try and keep any doctors or nurses out for as long as possible? Say Adri and Keo are fine, or sleeping—whatever needs to be said. Keo, think you can get into the chair? You'll be playing cripple for now. If anyone asks, Adri's your sister. You came here for Physical Therapy, and that's where you met me a few months ago," he turned to my mom, "Think you could get your car and wait around the corner?" My mom nodded and he continued, "Okay, you know how to get to Camp, correct?" my mother nodded again, "Good." Thorne sighed. "Now, Keo. We're gonna help you into the chair, but try to walk if you can, I need to see if you can run if need be."

I still wasn't sure why we'd need to run, but I helped Keo out of the bed nonetheless.

Keo stood, leaning against the bed with his good arm over my shoulder. Slowly, he took his weight off the bed, barely putting any on me. He took a shaky step forward, flinching. He put a little more weight on me and took another step, cringing again. I knew he was in pain, but I let him take his arm off my shoulder when he requested, staying next to him in case he fell.

Keo managed to walk by himself. The first few steps were all followed by a gasp or flinch. After the fourth or so step, he began to look a little more confident, the mask of pain on his face lessening.

Keo's mother and I helped him into the chair the moment he made it over.

"Phew," Keo sighed. He looked at Thorne's expression, one pleading for information. "I think I got the hang of moving. But I don't think I would be able to run for long…" Sadly, I believed him. Keo had managed to, in a few seconds, figure out how to walk with minimal movement to his torso. Running would hurt like hell for him, but I knew he would if he had to.

Keo, my mother, and I all said goodbye to Auntie Oshiro. With the way things had been going, and due to Thorne's 'plan,' I wasn't sure when I'd see her again. I shook the feeling. I needed to focus.

"Let's go," Thorne said, holding the door open as my mother pushed him through it. Thorne had managed to time everything perfectly, all of the nurses and doctors that had seen either Keo or I were gone, either their shift had ended or they were on lunch break. Only the girl who had delivered the food to Keo and I remained in the busy hallway. Making sure not to let her see any of our faces, we walked down the hall and made it into an empty elevator.

All four of us let out a sigh of relief once the doors closed.

"I'll take him once we get to the lobby," I said to my mom. She had to go get the car after all. Nodding, she began to push Keo forward as the doors opened.

We quickly switched and she jogged off to go get the car.

"Okay," Thorne said, "head towards the main entrance, and turn right."

I nodded and looked up, only to be met with a very, _very_ unwelcome sight.

The doctor that had scolded me for yanking out my IV stood only meters away, and he was looking me straight in the eyes. _Crap! _I thought to myself, not even bothering to look away. We had been caught. In moments he would be over her, ushering us back to our room. We'd failed.

I was about to elbow Thorne, maybe if we ran, we could get to the car on time! It was probably impossible, but we had to try _something_. Moments before my elbow came in contact with Thorne's side, the doctor did something that completely surprised me. Instead of rushing over, horrified, he nodded solemnly—like he knew what we were doing. I looked at Thorne, who was also staring at the doctor, utterly baffled. Thorne nodded back with the same expression.

Okay. What the heck was going on?

I didn't stick around to find out. Thorne urged me forward, and we began moving towards the exit, thankful that, somehow, the doctor must have known that we had a darn good reason for leaving.

Thorne held the door open for Keo and I as I pushed him out the door, making a sharp turn to the right, maybe too sharp.

"Yeow!" Keo exclaimed as his side hit the edge of the wheelchair.

"Sorry, sorry!" I said as I continued pushing him at a brisk walk. "Okay, Thorne, where now?" We were at the edge of the sidewalk, in back of the hospital. Either we crossed the deserted street and kept walking, or went back around to the front of the building.

"Wait…" he said, looking around.

Suddenly, I heard the squeal of tires and my mother's car appeared from around the corner.

I heard Thorne say something like, "Thank the gods…" as he pulled open the back door. I helped Keo in the backseat of the car as Thorne put the wheelchair in the truck. I hoped he'd at least paid for it or something. I felt bad for stealing from a hospital.

Luckily, I'd loaded Keo in on the side of the car where the seatbelt wouldn't hurt his broken ribs. The last thing we needed was to be pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt. My thoughts stopped in their tracks. Did they have the 'Click it or Ticket' law in New York? There was one in Hawai'i… hm… I pulled my mind back on track and pushed my stupid ADHD into the farthest corner or my mind. By the time I was refocused, Keo had already seat belted himself in and Thorne was getting into the passenger seat.

I quickly buckled myself in and picked up Keo's uninjured hand in my own.

My mom quickly put the car in drive and we sped down some street I did not know.

We weren't in the car long, maybe 10 or 15 minutes. But the tense silence made it feel like forever.

At this point, we were near the edge of the city, I didn't know which edge, but I did notice that the buildings thinning out, getting smaller.

My hands were all sweaty from the nervousness. I wasn't sure where we were going—'Camp' was it? Thorne and my mother's faces made it seem like we might not make it there in one piece. I hoped we'd all be all right.

We drove in silence for about 20 more minutes, passing by green hills and empty fields without even stopping to admire their beauty.

The longer we drove, the more Thorne seemed to relax. One thing I noticed was his flute, he held it in his hands, ready to play it. After seeing what it's melody could do, I wondered what kind of danger he expected.

I yawned loudly, car rides always made me sleepy.

"Don't fall asleep," my mother said, voice utterly serious.

"Mmmhmmm," I replied, already drifting off.

Suddenly, I felt a warm pressure on my shoulders. I opened my eyes to find Keo's arm lazily resting around me. A moment of me staring, wide eyed, passed. Then, something else happened. My shoulders felt like they had sprouted a million extra nerves.

The warmth of Keo's arm soaked through my hoodie. My skin reacted to it kind of like electricity. The feeling was something like a pleasant tingling. Well, what I did know for sure was that it woke me the heck up.

My heart was beating at a mile a minute, and I was sure everyone in the car could see my blush. I turned my head away from Keo, who was on the verge of laughing, and looked straight at the seat in front of me, trying to control my racing heart.

I was about to tell Keo to wipe the smirk off of his face when my mom slammed, and I mean _slammed_, on the breaks. We were all sent flying forward, only to be caught, rather painfully, by the seatbelts. My eyes widened, if it hurt for me to be flung forward like that, what would it feel like to Keo?

Squeaking, I snapped my head to the side. Keo had already taken off his seatbelt and was now clutching at his side, his face messed up with pain.

He groaned and collapsed against the back of the seat.

"Mom!" the words spilled frantically from my mouth, "Keo, he's…" I trailed off as I saw her face. It was a frozen mask of fear and disbelief. Thorne's face held the same expression.

Cautiously, I looked out of the front of the car, ready to see a giant dog, or a bear, or an _alligator_ for Christ's sake! My eyes scanned the ground. I saw nothing. I was about to ask what was wrong, and why no one seemed to notice that Keo needed some painkillers, when my eye caught the rearview mirror.

"Oh…my…God…" I muttered, turning around to make sure what I thought I saw was really there. Sadly enough, it was.

Behind the car, maybe 400 meters or so was a solid line of black. Looking closer, I saw that it was a bunch of, well, monsters. At least two dozen of those bear-sized dogs were present, along with some twenty other things that I couldn't identify. It didn't matter, since fangs, claws, scales, and talons were obvious enough. Did I mention that from this distance I could see dried blood on muzzles and the aforementioned traits? They all looked pretty damn scary. Worse yet, they were approaching swiftly. Keo had stopped groaning, and finally seemed to notice that something was wrong.

"What happened?" he asked, panting, turning around to see what I saw. An expletive slid from his mouth before he turned around, too fast. He grimaced.

"Auntie!" he yelled, "Thorne! GET MOVING!" His roar snapped them out of their trance, and they jumped into action.

My mother frantically stomped on the gas pedal, but nothing happened.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" she said, yelling the last word. An expletive slipped from her mouth as well. "I can't _believe_ this thing died _now_."

"I wouldn't be so surprised, _bla-ha-ha_," Thorne did that goat thing again, "Chances are, it's been tampered with…."

"By _who!_" my mom screamed. "We've gone miles in this thing already!"

"Then they probably messed up," Thorne was shaking, still staring at the mirror. "Monsters can be intelligent, but they aren't mechanics." He shook his head, as if convincing himself of something. "We gotta run."

"How far?" I asked, the wave of monsters was closer, about 300 meters.

"To that tree," he pointed to a pine tree with something gold hanging from one of the branches. "Well, technically, past that tree."

"Crap," I said. It was a good 100 meters, and the monsters were speeding up. I assumed they'd seen the car. "Crap, crap, crap, crap!" I said, my voice steadily getting higher until it reached a new octave.

"Well," Keo said, wincing, "Let's get a move. We need all the time we can get."

We all nodded as we opened the car doors and stepped out. Keo managed to get out by himself.

The monsters were about 250 meters away.

"Wheelchair!" my mother said, beginning to move towards the truck. I stopped her.

"Look," I said, motioning to the ground, covered in rocks, twigs, grass, and everything else that would slow down a wheelchair. "Keo, I'm really, really sorry about this. Can you run?"

He nodded solemnly. None of us would be able to carry him, even if all three of us did, we'd move pretty darn slowly. Crap!

"Okay, Thorne! Let's go!" I looked around the van, wondering where he went. What my eyes took in surprised me, yet again. He had taken off his pants and shoes, but instead of normal legs, he had… hooves. They looked like goat legs… all brown and furry, with hooves where his feet should be. I wasn't sure if what I was seeing was correct, but this was no time to ask questions. Plus, it explained why he walked so funny with shoes on.

Keo's arm over my shoulder, we began to run. My mom and Thorne bolted ahead, they had said something about getting help. I really didn't care, I just hoped they'd be safe.

We moved painfully slow. When I'd hoped for a sprinting pace, one where we'd easily reach the tree before the wave of blackness, all I could coax from Keo was a brisk jog. The whole time his face was scrunched up in pain, his breathing heavy. I didn't dare push him to go faster.

After what seemed like an eternity, we had made it halfway. The tree was so close! I identified the gold thing hanging from the branch as some type of fur. I'd ask about that if we made it out alive. I gulped. _If_.

"C'mon!" I urged Keo, almost pleading. "Please! I know we can make it out of here alive." The last words I didn't say to Keo. They were meant for whatever force was out there, putting us in this mess.

We were a little less then 25 meters from the tree, now.

"Almost there!" I cheered. Keo was panting, what had to be half his weight was being supported by my shoulder. I was half dragging him as we moved.

I looked back, a bad idea. The wave of monsters was scarily close, maybe 50 meters. I could see fangs, claws, fur, scales, and darkness. It was as if the darkness radiated from them. As if they weren't already scary enough.

"Keo!" I yelled, mustering up some strength, "Run. Now! Forget your ribs, and _move!" _

He understood the urgency in my voice. Either that or he heard the snarling of the horde behind us, but he managed to pick up the pace a bit. But, still, it didn't look like we were going to make it. We were only about 35 feet from the tree now. So close! But, so were the monsters. They were 50 feet behind us, and closing in.

I pulled Keo forward, the movement backfired. Keo stumbled, causing both of us to slow down. That was the _last_ thing I needed.

We were literally 10 feet from the tree when something shot out from above us.

I looked up to the crest of the hill. There stood a kid, about 15 years old from the looks of it. He held an intricately carved bow in his hands, and was firing arrows from it. In no time he'd shot 3 arrows into the stampede of monsters, making three of them explode into dust before they knew what hit them. Yikes. They were close. Ten feet.

The sudden deaths of some of their comrades caused them to pause, only for a few seconds as they looked for the threat, but it was enough time. Keo and I were feet away from the tree.

I gave one last tug and pushed Keo forward, causing him to stumble over the last couple of feet between him and the tree, and he fell on the other side, panting.

The motion snapped the monsters back on track, at least four of them jumped towards me. Scared out of my wits, I let my body react. Without knowing what it was exactly I was doing, I leaped blindly in the direction I hoped the tree was—I was still looking at the giant black dog that was jumping towards me.

I landed face-first on the packed earth, only to be welcomed by a thud and a loud crack. After a moment, pain told me what it was that had cracked…my arm.

Everything in my head began to swim.

I made a conscious effort to open my eyes, but all I managed was a one-eyed squint.

What I could see from one eye was limited, but it was more than enough.

All my eye could detect was one, big shadow. _Directly above me_.

**A/N: well, they're at Camp! Maybe not in the best situation, but they are at camp. Haha. Well, I hope the chapter was good. Reviews are appreciated. =)**


	5. Hey, I'm Alive

**Chapter 5. Hey, I'm Alive**

My good hand flew to my face, my right hand lying uselessly on the ground bent at an impossible angle. I squeezed my eyes shut and waited—my broken arm screaming in pain—for what I knew was about to come. I waited for the sharp, ripping teeth, for the gigantic, slicing claws, for the horrible, warm, wet feeling of my flesh being torn open. Grotesque picture? Tell me about it.

What seemed like minutes later, but in actuality, was only a second or two, I moved my arm and squinted my eyes. I assumed that if something wanted to kill me, it wouldn't have taken that long.

I began to take in my surroundings. I was behind the pine tree, so I was safe… according to Thorne and my mom. But how in the world would a flimsy pine tree protect me from anything?

I heard growling and snapping from behind me. I turned my head, painfully, towards the sound. Well, it swiveled as much as it could. I was lying on my stomach, my broken arm pinned painfully beneath me.

Out of the corner of my eye I managed to get a decent idea of why I wasn't dead. The stampede of monsters had stopped moving, standing in a perfectly straight line, trying to push forward as if some obscure force was holding them back. They were all snarling and baring their fangs, rage clearly etched into their horrible, shadowed faces. Wherever I was, I was safe for now….well, as safe as you could get with a bunch of oversized evil…things after you.

I tilted my head, snarls of dark hair falling in my eyes. Keo was lying a few feet away in a position similar to my own.

"Okay," I took a deep breath, closing my eyes. To get up, the first thing I'd have to do is roll onto my back. This was going to hurt…a lot.

3….2…

Just as I was about to fling myself over, my ears began to work properly again. I heard the clang of metal against metal and then a voice that I could distinguish as one from a teenager.

"Charge!" a girl screamed from behind me.

More metal clanged, followed by what sounded, and felt, like a hundred sets of heavy footsteps.

Soon, the sets of feet came into my vision. They were more teenagers, all running around me—_towards the horde of monsters._ I was about to begin screaming my lungs out, yelling at them to turn the hell around and get to safety, when I noticed the armor each of them wore and the weapons they carried—bows, swords, spears, hammers… and was that kid carrying rusty axes?

I watched as the wave of teenagers crashed against the horde of monsters, still growling and snapping—trying to no avail to get past the invisible barrier that held them back. Thuds and screams filled the air as the two sides mixed together. Kids swung their array of weapons, slashing at the towering monsters. Roars and screams echoed impossibly in the open field as monsters were decapitated or kids were injured.

"Oh crap!" someone gasped from out of my line of sight. "Ale! Austin! Will! Get over here and help me!" she called. I heard a few sets of footsteps heading in my direction. "Hello?" the girl asked frantically, her feet coming into view, "are you hurt? Can you walk?"

A low groan escaped my lips the moment they parted. I wondered briefly if speaking would even be possible without screaming every cuss word I knew.

"Arm," I mumbled, gasping, "brok'n."

She swore. "Well then, this is _not _going to be pretty," she muttered. Standing up she said, "Austin, come help me. Ale, help will with him."

Someone rolled me over, casing me to scream bloody murder for at least 5 seconds; I had never broken a bone before, and it was _not_ an experience I would recommend.

"Austin!" another female voice screeched. A second later she came into my blurry line of sight. Tan all around, a lot like what you saw in Hawaii. "Here," she said, holding a vial up to my mouth, "Drink it."

I have no idea what possessed me to drink that stuff, but whatever it was, it knocked me out fast.

"Adri. Aaaaaadddrrrriiiiii… ADRI!" a familiar voice called. I mustered up some strength and began randomly whacking the owner with my hand. "Ow, ow! What the hell are you doin'?"

"Finding the snooze button," I groaned.

Keo laughed. "Well I guess that answers my next question. You _obviously_ aren't in any pain."

I opened one eye, just to glare at him, and sat up, regretting the action immediately. Dizzily, I looked around. Keo sat on a chair beside my cot, which was oddly comfortable, bandages giving him something that resembled stripes.

The wind blew through the window, carrying in the scent of grass, sand, and the ocean—something so familiar that I nearly forgot that I wasn't home anymore.

"Do you remember what happened…?" Keo asked tentatively, playing with one of the sheets on my bed.

I closed my eyes, inhaling heavily, and thought back.

I groaned and replied, "Sadly, yes." Then I remembered one more detail. "Oh gosh! Are you okay? I though—I thought—well, you looked so… messed up! Does it hurt? Oh God, why am _I _the one in the bed? You should be lying—" Keo cut off my endless stream of worried blabbing.

"I'm fine," he poked my forehead to emphasize my idiocy, "Chiron can work miracles, I swear. You're arm was broken yesterday. Look at it."

I followed his instructions and moved my gaze to my right arm, which hadn't hurt at all since I woke up. It was in a black, Velcro-covered brace that looked exactly like the ones I had seen on friends hundreds of times.

"Holy crap…" I opened my eyes wider, lifting my arm, suspecting that what I was seeing was fake, and that a burst of pain would shoot through my arm at the slightest provocation. "How…?"

"You'll want Chiron to explain it to you in person. I don't even get most of it yet," Keo answered, turning towards the only door in the room, as if expecting someone.

"Wait, who's Chiron?"

"You'll find out in a second. Just… be prepared." He gave a devilish grin and opened the door.

"Thank you, Keola," a voice said, followed by a head poking around a door. I couldn't help but notice Keo's wide grin. There didn't seem to be anything worth 'being prepared' for when it came to this guy. Brown hair hung around hi tanned face. He looked to be about 45, maybe 50. The scary part was his eyes. Their golden depths looked like they belonged to someone who had lived since the beginning of time and seen things better unseen. I shuddered at the thought.

"I am Chiron," he said, stepping into the doorway, nearly causing me to fall out of my cot. He looked human enough from the waist up, a quiver strung onto his back. But, instead of normal human legs and feet, he had a horses legs and hooves. _Hooves!_ His…legs where covered in velvety white fur, and looked sleek and strong.

He stepped further into the room, slowly enough for me to take in what I was seeing. Not only did he have two horse legs, but he had the other two as well.

_Oh. My. God. _I thought, _I'm looking at a centaur._

"I'm dreaming right? This is just some side effect of whatever drugs I'm on?" I spluttered.

"Sadly, no. If you haven't already guessed, I'm Chiron, the centaur," he smiled warmly, immediately dissolving any suspicions I had about him being evil. His smile was just so… parental. It was kind of creepy. I had never even met the guy before but I felt like I'd known him for years.

"You are at Camp Half-Blood," he continued. "A summer camp designed for demigods—the children of the Greek gods and humans…"

"I'm part god?" I asked incredulously. I could think of a lot of things that described me, godly was _not _one of them.

"Yes. Your father was one of the Greek gods; we shall find out which one soon enough. For now, you and Keo will stay in the Hermes cabin," he turned his head, "Percy!" he called. Shortly after, a tanned, green eyed kid ran into the room.

"Yeah, Chiron?" he said.

"Show Keo and Adri around, and make sure they get on the phone with their parents."

"But, phones…?"

"It's okay. Their mothers need to speak to them."

The Percy kid nodded and smiled at me and Keo.

"C'mon, you got a lot to learn," he turned and quickly left the room, expecting us to follow.

I stood up, a bit shaky at first. Keo offered help but I declined, already gaining stability. I shot a wary glance back at Chiron before exiting; I still had no idea what was going on.

"It's okay," he said, practically reading my thoughts, "no one gets it at first."

I nodded and followed Keo, clinging onto the one thing in this place that I understood.

I was momentarily blinded by a bright beam of sunlight as Percy opened a large wooden door. So far, I had learned that the building we were in was called the 'Big House' and was pretty much like the teachers lounge at most schools.

Percy had also told Keo and I that Mr. D (who was actually the Greek god Dionysus, scary right?) was the head honcho at Camp. He also said that Mr. D really hated most of us campers, so we wouldn't see him around much. And for that I was thankful, I'd had more than my share of children-hating adults in my life.

Percy, who I found out was the only son of Poseidon at Camp Half-Blood, showed us around. We passed a beach volleyball pit—which I nearly began drooling over—a mess hall—that was in serious need of, oh, a ROOF—a forest that looked like your stereotypical horror movie setting, some stables with a bunch of Pegasus instead of horses, and a training arena. The training arena had to be the scariest thing I had ever seen, yes even more scary than the dozens of monsters out to kill me. Next to a sword fighting arena, which was absolutely full, was something that looked like two high rock walls. They didn't look menacing at all until a kid stepped between them. Suddenly, the ground beneath him opened up, revealing a pool of particularly unpleasant looking lava. The walls and ground began to tremble, and the kid leaped up and grabbed frantically for whatever foot and handholds he could find. That was when I turned away. If that was the _training_, I didn't want to know what we were being trained _for_.

"And this," Percy said, "is the armory. You'll probably always find some Hephaestus kids around here tinkering with something. Matter of fact…SEAN!"

"Yeah, what?" an annoyed voice responded. "If you want to borrow my bike again… who are these two?" he nodded at us, his brown waves of hair barely moving. Admittedly, the first thing I noticed about him was how outright haole he looked. Most of the people we'd seen so far were tanned from constantly training out under the sun, but his skin had managed to keep most of its generally white pigmentation.

I had to hole back a giggle when I looked at his face; it seriously reminded me of a _bear_. I took his height into account, he looked to be almost six feet, only furthering my image of him as a bear.

After a moment of sizing 'Sean' up, Keo spoke, "I'm Keo, this is Adri. We're the newbies."

Sean chuckled, "No **** Sherlock? Well, whenever you feel the need to get some hardcore weapons, c'mon down." He turned away, putting on headphones and blasting something that sounded suspiciously like…

"Rise Against?" Keo and I both said at the same time, immediately smiling at our synchronized response. It _never_ got old.

Sean turned around and gave a halfhearted grin before turning the volume up more and returning to work.

"That guy has officially earned some respect from me," Keo whispered, "Actually listens to some decent music instead of the crap that's coming out these days…" I rolled my eyes and focused on not tripping as I followed Percy.

"These are the cabins," Percy said distractedly, glancing around—not that I cared. I was much too busy taking in what was before me. Twelve buildings—I assumed they were the cabins—were arranged in a U shape with two at the end and five on each side. What really amazed me were how extremely different each one was. All but one of them were far from what you'd expect a cabin in a summer camp to look like. The two largest cabins at the end of the U were made of white marble with gold trim. I assumed that these two belonged to Zeus and Hera. On one side of these two was a low to the ground rock structure with shimmering windows and a heavy wooden door; it looked like the closest thing to hurricane-proof I'd ever seen. I could only guess that it belonged to Poseidon.

On the other side of the Zeus and Hera cabins was another low to the ground structure, but this one was much grander—made of glassy obsidian and some type of white stone that I couldn't recognize. Hades. Definitely Hades.

Percy explained the rest of the cabins to us, and some of the general rules of Camp before showing us to the Hermes cabin.

"Hey," Keo laughed, "It's the only one that looks like an actual _cabin_!" I laughed along and nodded my agreement. Its wooden walls looked worn and as if they had been painted hundreds of times, by unskilled painters, may I add. A lopsided sign with a caduceus sloppily painted on it hung above the doorway.

A group of girls with sandy blond hair, walked out of the cabin, giggling as they passed Keo. I rolled my eyes. Teenagers.

"Travis! Connor!" Percy called into the cabin. Moments later, two bulky guys stepped out of the overcrowded room. "This is Adri and Keo. They're still undetermined, so go easy on them, 'k?" Percy said, his tone rushed.

"Whoa, what's the hurry?" one of them said.

"Looking for someone?" said the other, wagging his eyebrows. Only then did I realize that they were twins.

Suddenly, at least 10 people from inside the cabin began singing "Percy and Annabeth, sittin' in a tree…" causing Percy to blush profusely.

"Annabeth?" I whispered to him.

"Don't worry," he smiled back, "You'll meet her soon enough."

I looked back at Keo, who was smiling and singing along with the Hermes cabin members, happy to finally be able to pester someone.

After a good 20 seconds of haughty laughter, one of the twins spoke.

"Well, Adri, Keo, c'mon. We'll find you a spot… or not," he looked questioningly at a point somewhere above my head.

"Wha…?" I trailed off as my eyes caught on an abstract swirl of glittering smoke above Keo's head.

I watched in awe as a shape began appearing out of thin air, turning slowly, as if rotating on an invisible axis. The rough shape began to come into focus, the small shimmering dust cloud turning into a golden lightning bolt.

"Zeus…" I mumbled to myself, finally noticing the stunned silence that had fallen over the whole Hermes cabin.

When I was finally able to tear my eyes away from the lightning bolt hovering over Keo's head, I was met with Percy's smiling face.

"Welcome to the family, sis'," Percy said, chuckling. Then, to Keo, "You've got a half sister that just got here yesterday. You'll probably meet her at dinner. But, c'mon. Chiron wants you two to call your parents."

The whole walk back to the Big House was spent in silence, Keo and I arm in arm, barely noticing the gorgeous sunset. We were both trying to make sense of all that we had seen during the day. Poseidon. I was a daughter of Poseidon. The realization of that simple fact swirled around in my head for how long, my only other though being 'no wonder I love the beach so much.'

After arriving at the Big House, Chiron had us both call our parents. The usual pleasantries were exchanged, followed by happy sighs of relief at the fact that no one got hurt too badly.

"Mom…" I said after a particularly long pause in the conversation, "they told me I have to stay all summer, and maybe doing the year… What do I do?" My last sentence reminded me of myself as a kid, whining for my mother to make all my choices for me.

"You stay," she said, matter of factly, but I still heard the sadness in her voice. "I know why you're there. I've known since you were born… I only wish you could've waited longer." She sighed, "Well, it's not safe for you to be on the phone for too long, even inside of Camp. I'll write?"

"Yes! Definitely," I held back tears, not willing to break down while talking to my mom. I wasn't usually that emotional, but, for all I knew, it might've been the last time I'd see my mother in… well, a long time. "Well, I gotta go. Bye, mom! Love ya!" I rushed, tears threatening to make themselves known to the whole wide world.

"I love you, Adri," she said, the smile audible in her voice. I could've sworn that I heard a small sniffle before the line went dead.

I slumped back against a wall, giving up on being Ms. Invincible and letting a few tears begin their slow, rather anticlimactic, journey towards the ground. I didn't hiccup, I didn't snot, I didn't roll around on the floor in my misery. Two tears, that's all. Like I said, I was never that much of a crier.

I wiped my face in preparation to leave the confines of the unfamiliar room; the phone I was borrowing needed to be returned to Chiron at some point.

A knock on the door startled me into action.

"Sorry for taking so long. Thanks for the phone," I said, staring at the floor, as I opened the door and held the phone out. After a moment of my hand hanging still in the fresh air, I looked up to see what the delay was.

Instead of seeing a towering horse-man, I was met with the much less abnormal sight of a teenage girl. Her hair was a sandy blond that I had seen much of during my day wandering about Camp. The only thing that stuck out about it was one grey streak that ran it's curly length. The girl was an inch or two taller than me, her silver-grey eyes looking down slightly to make contact with mine.

"Oh!" I stammered, "Sorry. Thought you were Chiron asking for his phone."

"Hm?" she said, taking me in. "It's no problem. I'm Annabeth Chase, by the way. Have you seen Percy anywhere around here? The Hermes kids told me he was over here…"

"Annabeth?" that name was so… Percy's girlfriend! "Oh! Percy's girlfriend? Yeah, he was somewhere around here."

"Jeez," she rolled here eyes humorously, "you're here less than a week and you already know. So I assume you're Adrianna?"

"Adri," I corrected automatically, shaking her hand.

"Well," she smiled, "if you need help with anything, I'll be in the Athena cabin. I doubt that Seaweed Brain, Percy, will be much help. Bye!" she grinned and left, presumably searching for Percy.

Moments later, Chiron rounded the corner.

"Ah, Adri. Done I see?" I handed him the phone.

"Thank you so much. I was really worried."

"It's not a problem. Hm…" he looked out a window, "It'll be dinner soon. I'll have Percy show you around your cabin, if that's okay?" he gave me a benignly questioning look.

"That would be great. There's some stuff I've wanted to ask him, too. Well, thanks a lot! See you at dinner?"

Chiron nodded and walked out the same door that Annabeth had only a minute earlier.

Before my mind had time to wander back to the subject of my constantly changing life, Percy appeared out of nowhere.

"Ready to see the your home for the next how many months?" he said smiling widely. "It's gonna be great to finally have someone to share the place with. It gets pretty lonely after a while.

I grinned and laughed along, even though I felt like I was about to faint from all of the information I had been taking in.

We talked constantly on the walk back to the Poseidon cabin, Percy answering pretty much all of the questions I had about Camp.

"Ohmigod!" I gasped as Percy opened the door to our cabin. I thought it looked amazing—homey and lived in, all while keeping a neat modern edge—from the outside, but it was a million times better on the inside. The walls were lined with bunks made of smoothed beach-wood, blue and green sheets lying flat and undisturbed on each one. I was pretty sure that they hadn't all been occupied at once in a very long time.

The floors were made of the same rock and coral mixture as the walls, but were twice as amazing. A large fountain stood in the back of the room, filling the whole cabin with the calming trickle of salt water.

Percy opened a window and I nearly sighed as my lungs were filled with the familiar scent and sounds of the ocean.

"It's amazing!" I said just as Percy said, "Look up." I did as he was told and nearly collapsed on the spot.

Hanging from the ceiling, on wires that were barely visible, were some of the most intricate models of sea creatures I had ever seen. Metal sea horses and dolphins hung delicately, making the room feel even more like a small bubble of ocean.

"How…?" I whispered, reaching up, as if to try and touch the sculptures that I surely couldn't reach, and even more surely wouldn't want to break.

"My—our—half-brother, Tyson. He's a Cyclops, and one that's amazing with metal, at that," Percy chuckled, "it's going to take some getting used to, having a sister."

A bell chimed and Percy ushered me out of the room and to dinner.

I had a long summer ahead of me.


End file.
